The new, supposedly improved, New York Giants sure looked a lot like the old, inept New York Giants while losing to the Washington Commanders 21-6 on Sunday in their season-opener.
Remember all that fun they had in the preseason? The good vibes and optimism all of that generated?
Poof! Gone.
They looked like the same old — losing — Giants.
It was a season-opener, so of course the Giants’ offense slumbered through it.
The Giants have now scored 12 points COMBINED in their last three season openers. That is a level of unfathomable futility in modern-day football. It is the first time that has happened since the early 1940s.
The Giants, in fact, have never scored a touchdown in the first half of any of the four season openers in the Daboll era. They have six first-half points TOTAL in openers against the Tennessee Titans, Dallas Cowboys, Minnesota Vikings and Commanders.
“I’m focused on this year,” Daboll said. “Just didn’t do a good enough job.
“Collectively, we all have to do better.”
The quarterback play was not the biggest, or the only, problem. But, it wasn’t nearly good enough.
Didn’t we say that about Daniel Jones for years? He was never the only problem, he was just never good enough to overcome all of the other problems.
Well, Russell Wilson was not the reason the Giants lost on Sunday. He wasn’t good, though. Certainly not good enough to overcome poor offensive line play, the lack of a running game, too few open receivers and a defense that played hard but couldn’t get key stops or come up with game-changing takeaways.
That is familiar ground, as well.
It left Daboll fumbling for answers about what the Giants will do at quarterback going forward with first-round pick Jaxson Dart waiting in the wings. Daboll may not have meant to, but he clearly opened the door to replacing Wilson with Dart.
“I mean, we’re just right here after the game,” Daboll said. ““I got confidence in Russell , so we’re going to go back, we’ll evaluate the tape. This game isn’t on Russell Wilson. It’s not on Russell Wilson. Want to make that clear. I have confidence in Russell. We got to do a better job all the way around.”
When it comes to improving an offense that ranked 31st in the NFL last season, the Giants put all their eggs in the quarterback basket. The only significant change they made was to revamp their quarterback room completely, adding veterans Wilson and Jameis Winston and trading up to draft Dart as their quarterback of the future.
On Sunday, that paid no dividends.
“I think the game was simple in the sense that we didn’t convert in the red zone,” Wilson said. “We had two chances down in the red zone to make it a close game, a really close game. The game was close all the way
throughout the whole game, really, to be honest with you. I thought our defense did a good job
battling. I thought, for us, when we get down to the red zone and the ball is on the one- or two-yard
line, we got to score. They stopped us; they played well. We got back down there again, and then
they stopped us again. I think that changes the complexion of the game tremendously.”
Now, everyone is left to wonder how long Daboll will watch the offense flounder helplessly the way it did vs. the Commanders before playing the Dart card in an effort to salvage the season and perhaps his job.
The fact that Jones, the quarterback the Giants blamed their issues on and jettisoned, did a Saquon Barkley impersonation on Sunday can’t help. Jones played like a superstar hell-bent on making the Giants look foolish by going 22 of 29 for 272 yards and a touchdown as his Indianapolis Colts routed the Miami Dolphins, 33-8.
Ouch!
The Giants were right to move on from Jones when they did last season, but having him play that way Sunday while his former team stumbled badly is embarrassing.
The offensive line was … offensive.
Every year the Giants draw up a new plan for the offensive line. Every year they hope they have made progress toward having the quality offensive line all good teams need. Almost every year since about 2012 that plan somehow goes up in flames.
This year, they signed a real swing tackle, James Hudson, as protection for the oft-injured Andrew Thomas. Hudson’s first game as a Giant, with Thomas still recovering from Lisfranc surgery, was ugly. Pro Football Focus charged Hudson with eight pressures in 45 Wilson dropbacks. PFF had every other offensive lineman allowing two. Hudson also committed a critical holding penalty negating a Theo Johnson catch that put the Giants in the red zone trailing 14-6 in the third quarter.
There were no holes for Tyrone Tracy, Cam Skattebo and Devin Singletary. Those three gained 30 yards on 15 carries, with Singletary managing the longest run, which was only 8 yards. PFF had the Giants with just 15 yards worth of explosive runs to 138 for Washington.
The Giants hoped Hudson would help. They hoped better health from Jon Runyan and another year of experience for John Michael Schmitz would help. They hoped Greg Van Roten, 35, could hold together for another year. Those things all looked questionable on Sunday.
The Giants hoped Evan Neal would emerge as a good guard as he finally transitioned from tackle. He was inactive on Sunday, so it doesn’t look like that is happening.
The defense was … OK?
The Giants’ defense has been hyped for months as the greatest thing since, if not the Lawrence Taylor-Carl Banks Giants’ defense, at least the one that pummeled Tom Brady and helped the Giants beat the New England Patriots in two Super Bowls.
There wasn’t any sign on Sunday that the current Giants’ defense is anything like either of those tremendous defenses.
Abdul Carter showed Sunday he will be a monster. Brian Burns was outstanding. Kayvon Thibodeaux was impactful. Bobby Okereke tackled a lot of guys.
The defense, though, was not dominant.
- The Giants couldn’t keep quarterback Jayden Daniels in the pocket, and he ran for 68 yards on 11 carries (6.2 yards per carry).
- When Daniels threw the ball, the Giants couldn’t cover. Daniels went 19 of 30 for 233 yards and a touchdown, and likely had at least four passes dropped.
- The defense could not create any turnovers or real game-changing plays.
- The Giants let the Commanders out of a second-and-19 hole en route to scoring their second touchdown of the game.
- In the fourth quarter, the Giants let the Commanders escape a second-and-17 en route to a back-breaking touchdown that put the game out of reach at 21-6.
“The most disappointing thing is really not getting the job done,” Burns said. “I felt like the whole game was just
right there, but just a little too far from our grasp. Kept them to 14 basically the entire game till the
middle of the fourth. So, I felt like we were in the game for the most part, but we just couldn’t get that
last extra push to tie it up or even take the lead.”
Actually, the most disappointing thing is that these new Giants have made it seem like the old Giants haven’t gone anywhere. There are 16 chances ahead to change that perception, but this was anything but the promising start to the 2025 season that the Giants were looking for.
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